Tarasova S. Discourse Identity of the Fool-Wisecracker in the Carnival Space of the USA and Great Britain

The object of the analysis is а discourse identity of the fool-wisecracker as the subject of the carnival culture of the USA and Great Britain. The fool-wisecracker is studied at the angle of specificutas of linguocreative intentional activity through principles of dialectics. The purpose of the study is to analyze а discourse identity of the English-speaking fool-wisecracker and to identify the specifics of this carnival figure in the United States and Great Britain's communicative space. The major scientific methods are synthesis of traditional and newest methods of linguistic analysis. The linguophilosophical method is the leading one as it reveals the dialectic-dialogic nature of the fool-wisecracker. In particular, functional and communicative linguistics approach, methods of discursive analysis, interpretive analysis of the text, elements of comparative and quantitative analysis are involved. The scientific novelty of the work is accounted for substantiating the dialectic-dialogic essence of а discourse identity of the fool-wisecracker that is reflected in carnivalization of their speech. This research is the first of its kind: to single out а discourse identity of the fool-wiscracker as the basis of the carnival culture; to distinguish four main types of the fool-wisecrackers: a clown, a jester, a buffoon and a trickster which operate within professional and nonprofessional spheres; to apply the principles of dialectical interconnection, historicism, contradiction and creative activity which reveal the specifity of а discourse identity of the fool-wisecracker; to identify the non-basic types original kinds of the fool-wisecracker: a hospital clown, a trickster-politician, an official jester and a corporate jester; to establish the creative potential of the fool-wisecracker through means of comic in verbal, non-verbal and supraverbal spheres. The theoretical value of the thesis is that its results are a contribution to functional and communicative linguistics; to the theory of dialogue; to linguopersonology and linguoculturology; to linguistic stylistics. The applied value of the obtained results is determined by the prospets of their use in the lecture courses in English stylistics (themes ‘Text Stylistics’, ‘Stylistic Semasiology’, ‘Stylistic Figures of Speech’), linguistic British and American studies (themes ‘Great Britain: the Country and the People’, ‘USA: the Country and the People’), general linguistics (themes ‘Language and Society’), in optional courses in intercommunication, discourse studies, genre studies as well as in graduate and postgraduate research.